Cleaning up: I forgot to link to this footage of the recent Plan B demo. Heard the link to here from Chrome Ball was taken down because it wasn't working. Still here Chops! Swear. I've watched the Red and Yellow clip below like ten times. Somehow they made that whole damn thing work. But it dawned on me; how can the video possibly live up to that trailer? I hope it does.

November 29, 2010

November 27, 2010

The Skatistan concept probably isn't all that new to most of you, but this video is well worth your time. These kids are absolutely raw; the ultimate rejoinder to the age old complaint, "my city sucks for skating," and much more.

November 22, 2010

Sleet outside and new videos from Crailtap make good bedfellows. What I scrawled on an envelope while watching:
-Fast cars are still cool. Yeah Ty Evans, good intro.
-Chocolate needs to put Lem Villimen on before he ends up on Plan B. As much as I enjoy Kenny Anderson and Chico, they need some fresh legs to back up the video's one trick wonders.
-Malto in white shoes!
-Vince Alvarez, I'm becoming more and more convinced, can do whatever he really wants and make it look cool and/or janky-but-cool, and still be surprising. Switch 360 flips and BSA stinkers come to mind. And all that bizarro switch out of nowhere.
-All the young dudes just don't look right trying to break shit and such. They simply come off too well adjusted.
-The filters make this web throwaway nice and cohesive.
-Get ready to get sick of nollie late-flips and other variants in the near future. While Cory Kennedy and P-Rod are doing them quite well right now, the flood gates will open soon. On a related note, switch bigspin heelflips are losing their luster.
-Scratch the assertion that KA only had one trick; I'm counting that chop-stick Michael J. Fox as one too. Or should it be a Marty McFly?
-Is one of the main reasons that Lem Villemin isn't full on because they've already got Malto? Aside from their obvious shared Asianosity, their skate-games are strikingly similar. Do all the really good kids skate that way now? Maybe.
-Crailtap has now split allegiances between Vimeo and Youtube, but as pointed out by Geaners Gauges, still stay allied with iFrames.

November 19, 2010

If French rap is frap, then Charles Collet had a very faux-frunk thing going on for way too long and I was never into him, until now. This French Fred produced web short of him is not only a perfect autumnal remedy, even with snow on the ground, but also shows Collet in a mellowed, simply shredding light that puking up wine and other b.s. sometimes overshadowed. Aside from his board going in the river, the best part was the reverse-Michael J. Fox, and like, the skating too.

This post is a direct result of reading the Burnout French Fred interview. Sometimes those things can be a little too insidery, but that one was good. I think I could chill with Fred.

While still not a good team, the TWolves are showing signs of life. With a grinded out win last night, Platinumseagulls person of the week, Michael Beasely, gave the money quote: "Cause when I think it's not really too good." PREACH.

November 16, 2010

They weren't to "blog deathwatch status," but after a brief hiatus, Wiskate has some video goodness and some of that ollie to the tenth power type stuff. Watch the video for that last part to make sense.

The Lair has fully gutted its middle section. That this has happened after the first snowfall is a blessing and a curse. As for the curse, well, that's pretty obvious. For the blessing, we'll have some new stuff to skate once this snow stuff gets really bad. If I have one wish: parking blocks. Everybody gets old. There's an alterna-blessing too. It's really happening.

November 15, 2010

Fake links, disappearing links, and the policing of links have, in the big ticket event world of online skateboard videos, made it way more convenient to shell out $2.99 than seek illicit yet free viewings of such things as PRod's new video part (that's a real link to the pay-link). If I-tunes will make the Youtube star some money, I'm all for it. Here are a few observations, now that I'm $2.99 poorer:

-In the immortal words of Denny Green, the Paul Rodriguez is what we though they were. To put it in a way that makes sense, there are no revelations to be had about him in this video part. He's always going to skate So-Cal, he's always going to be polished, he's always going to look a little too perfect, and he's always going to do some truly bonkers stuff.

-While I'm no Kanye-lifer, the fact that this pay-to-play set up allows for real music to be used in a way that fits the skater, I'm all for it.

-He may have single-handedly brought back some kind of flip-in-flip-out game.

-He's cemented a nollie lateflip game. Prepare for a ton of poorly executed variations, coming to an internet near you.

-Where are the manuals?

Only after I bought it, I went to look on I-tunes to see if it was a best-seller. It is, number one in fact for seasons, though I'm not 100% sure if my purchase influenced that ranking.

The Timberwolves looked kind of hopeful this week and they produced a legitimately funny promo video. One should also remember that they where 1-15 or so to start last season, so, like, 3-8 silver linings!

Strobeck clips are always a treat, and I should start figuring that when I like some dude's skating but I'm not sure who it is right off the bat, just assume its Austyn Gillette. Soon I won't have to Google his name to spell it right either.

November 12, 2010

Again with this place. It looks pretty damn fun, especially in the above edit.

Quartersnacks has a great interview with Kalis. I'd say its pretty much a must read simply because he's the most outspoken dude in the industry. Interesting that he cites Grant Taylor's personality (or lack thereof) as a contributing factor to quitting AWS.

A confluence of skate excellence is happening this weekend in the greater Twincities--the vaguely flyer-less Plan B demo at the Lair, and the Sk8 Mafia backed St Cloud Skate Plaza opening. For the diligent and motivated, this Saturday offers skateboard nerding at levels never imagined, but be aware. The Lair is understandably expecting a big turnout for the demo, and they have a semi-complicated entrance policy for it. As for St Cloud, the weather is looking necessarily sketchy, but then again, that's my NE Minne zip-code, so maybe that 80% chance of rain or snow is really, really isolated. My "Oh shit" moment of the day was when MPR stated that they really had no idea what was going to happen on Saturday, weather-wise. It could be a ton of rain, or five to 10 inches of snow; their computer wasn't sure just what is to happen.

My best hopes say that everything goes off without a hitch this weekend, barring the "possibly-impending-but-we-don't-know-potential-blizzard." Those with high hopes be aware that you might get slogged; a possible alternative is getting that giant wine glass, and dealing with a possible snowed in fate.

November 10, 2010

Friend of the Plat and local do-gooder Seth McCallum runs a non-profit called Shred-Coed, and tomorrow night is there second event. The details above are pretty clear, Jammin' Jay will be spinning, there's a ramp and beers and food, and there will also be auctions and a raffle. Make special note that the donation cost above is only a suggested--word from Zed himself is that you could show up with a buck, and you're good. Support a good dude and a good cause, check it out tomorrow night.

Jerboi Nordness shows up on the TSM site, and a the rest of what I was going to put here isn't on the internet anymore. Ho-hum.

November 9, 2010

Once again I'm left to snipe content from others that are more on point, here and here. Above is the St. Cloud Plaza, a place which we'll one day have to come up with a nickname for. I can imagine that locals will call it one thing, and us [Mississippi (is there one really)] Val Jerks will call it something completely different. Oh there's people skating it already! Where's a 1987 Buick stationwagon when you need one?

Other details are sketchy. Is there going to be a Plan B demo at MOA? Is Henkler going to keep the park open late the night before, or will the dudes never leave the Graves (or an equally lux hotel near that giant mall?)? Is that demo to be indoors? Does anyone really want to go?

Quartersnacks has a damn good rundown of why Photosynthesis is an artifact all his own. While Mr. Satchek said pretty much what there is to say, I do remember going to the premiere. It might have been one of the last at the St. Paul Student Center, before Oak Street Cinema reigned supreme. Elijah still lived with his parents; even though I lived in that one skatehouse I went over there and we shared a forty before the movie. Kalis skated to a different song in the premiere copy, and to this day I can't remember what it was. Everything turned out all right with that Freddy Foxxx though. I've still got my copy, just need a VCR.

November 5, 2010

As I was able to glean from The Hesh, there's quite the shindig coming up in St. Cloud. Kanten Russell is going to be there! Its kind of shocking to see how on-point his part from The Storm is now. Backsmith backside kickflip? He got it. Solid backside 360 ollies? Yup. Had he bigspin heelflipped some stacks, I'd have sworn that it came out yesterday. Anyhow good looks to everyone that is making that happen. I'm still left scratching my head as to why there's nothing more centrally located in the Twincities metro.

Just gonna link to this new Nick Jensen part, even if its got roughly 20,000 views, and more than likely its old hat. The dude is just way too rad not too, and the sounds and sights of London just might be the perfect accompaniment to what looks like a crispy fall day in the Upper Midwest. Like, right?